VK as a marketing channel

1. What is VKontakte?

2. What is that?
• VKontakte, or VK, is a fast-growing Russian social
networking service which is also called “Russian
Facebook”.
• VK has many similar to Facebook features and
functionalities, but differences between these two
can be also found.

3. What is that?
• VK was launched in the year 2006.
• In January 2014 it had at least 239 million accounts
(55 million daily users) mostly in Russia, CIS
countries and Eastern Europe region.
• VKontakte is available in 70 languages but popular
particularly among Russian-speaking users all around
the world.

4. Community
• VKontakte is based on the sense of community.
• A user "collects" friends to communicate with. They
can send messages to each other, participate in
discussions in different chats, write posts on their page
walls, invite each other to events, etc.
• According to eBizMBA Rank, it is the 8th most popular
social networking site in the world.

5. Special features
• Like other social networks, VKontakte allows
users to:
message contacts privately and publicly;
create groups, public pages and events;
share and tag images, video and audio;
share notes and documents;
play browser-based games.
• The maximum size of a file distributed is 200 MB,
and the system supports mostly common text,
image and media file types.

6. How to join VK
• A private user creates an account on which a
profile page is based. After that, a user can
manage personal data and interface through
the “Settings”.

7. How to join VK
• VKontakte is a search robot which allows users to
find friends, groups and communities;
apply an advanced search by entering additional
information.
→Tip: This feature can be utilized in VKontakte marketing
activities as well. For instance, the segmentation process
can be based on age, gender, education or domicile.

8. How to join VK
• In order to “become” friends, a friend request
should be sent first to another user who accepts or
declines this request.
• As for joining groups, there are two possible ways. If
a group is open, a user is free to join it. A closed
group requires a membership application that is
handled by a group administrator.

9. VK as a marketing channel
• Different companies, organizations, and events may set up their own
VKontakte groups and pages to provide members with interesting
content, news, activities and platforms for communication.
• These pages can be created in "My Groups" -> "Create a Group".
• The group consists of the main page where users can find:
 the group's description
 images, audio and video files
 possible discussions
 surveys
 links
 the wall (where the communication mainly takes place).

10. VK as a marketing channel
• VKontakte marketing is based on collecting group members
or event participants and communicating with them.
• Members of the group make up a direct registry, so that they
can be informed about news, given with valuable content and
involved into different activities.
• At best, the group members are committed to the group and
begin to market it to their friends, and this is how the whole
idea of community service is realized through viral marketing.

11. VK as a marketing channel
• Groups and event pages are quite
popular in VK, and the largest ones
have millions of members.
• Members usually visit group pages
on a regular basis and participate
in group discussions and activities
diligently.
• The most successful way is to
increase the number of fans is to
produce valuable content and ask
friends to spread a word about it.

12. VK as a marketing channel
• VKontakte provides users with an opportunity to market
their groups, products and services with the use of
premium banners.
• VK ads service allows you to create advertisements
directed to your target audience easily.
• Advertising costs vary due to the amount of times your
ad is displayed or clicked. As an example, you can pay an
advertising fee based on VK click-/display auction.

13. Reasons to apply VK as a
marketing tool:
• VK is the second most visited website in Russia;
• VK allows companies to target marketing
activities more effectively than in keyword or banner
marketing;
• VK marketing is affordable (often free of charge);

14. Reasons to apply VK as a
marketing tool:
• VK marketing is based on viral marketing.
Tip: Testimonials received from relatives and acquaintances
influence Russian consumers' purchasing decisions more than in
other countries;
• VK marketing is easier than, for example, Yandex
keyword marketing;
• VK is a young, dynamic and rapidly growing
channel!

15. VKontakte vs. Facebook
According to Top 100 Facebook Pages, five biggest
fan pages are:
• Facebook
• Shakira
• Rihanna
• Eminem
• Coca-Cola (Coke)
Consequently, Facebook users are interested in
brands, entertainment and celebrities.

16. VKontakte vs. Facebook
Five biggest fan pages in VK are the following:
• Epicentre of humour
• Ti ne poverish’!
• Kinomania
• iFace
• Korporatsia Zla
The content of this list consists of comedy,
education and entertainment. Epicentre of
humour, iFace and Korporatsia Zla are popular
fun pages (more than 4 million of followers).
Kinomania is a group of movie funs. Ti ne
poverish’! is a page where different interesting
facts are posted.
VKontakte users want to laugh,
enjoy and share opinions and
experiences
with other like-minded people.

17. To sum up:
• While Facebook is focusing on factual information spreading, VK is
more entertaining. There are plenty of pictures and funny videos.
• In Facebook people have most of their attention focused on
famous people. At the moment, another popular phenomenon is
technology, and this is the reason why Facebook and YouTube are in
the TOP 10.
• The most popular VK pages are fun communities and pages where
link-minded people share their opinions and experiences.
• Discussions taking place in VK are more emotional than on
Facebook.

18. Take the first step!
• VK is one of the most used Russian electronic
channels and a significant social networking
service.
• It is an important tool in positioning your e-
marketing strategy in Russia, and its utilization
should be taken seriously.
But does this channel seem challenging? Trust the
experts who will handle it for you!